Latin Wikipedia's article of the month for April: Cyclus Inarotis et Petubastis
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Cyclus Inarotis et Petubastis, cum locum habeat in Aevo Tertio Intermedio, bellatores nihilominus per anachronismum loricam hamatam (necnon tunicas) gerentes describit, quasi milites Ptolemaici qui Opere Musivo Praenestino de Nilo hic depinguntur.At least, I think so. There seems to be a consensus that this will be the page of the month for April and nothing else has been proposed to replace it so it should go through.
What's interesting about this page is that it's written in Latin only; no other languages have any information on it. That also means that I'm not sure exactly what it's about since I'm still not that good at Latin. It seems to be about a group of Egyptian fables written in Demotic though. Let's try to muddle through the Latin and maybe Olivier or someone will come along and tell me if I'm right, which I'm probably not.
Cyclus Inarotis et Petubastis est nomen quod docti nostrae aetatis cuidam fabularum Aegyptiarum (Aevi fortasse Hellenistici Romanive) quasi-epicarum seriei lingua Demotica scriptae dant. Fabulae ad heroica principum bellatorum Aegyptii Aevi Intermedii Tertii opera spectant.Cyclus Inarotis et Petubastis is something that teaches us about the age when Egyptian fables (quasi-epic?) were written in the Demotic language. The fables look at the first Egyptian wars from the middle third ages.
Yeah, or something. Next we have:
Fabulae videntur antiquitus plurimae fuisse; hodie autem (cum sat multa sunt aliarum fabularum fragmenta) sunt quattuor notae digni textus:A lot of the fables were seen in antiquity; today (with enough other fragments of the fables) there are four notable main texts:
Then it goes on to talk about the four parts where some king of Assyria attacks a Pharoah, someone goes to Ethiopia, someone steals into a king's house in the night by taking the stairs. Then Petubastis becomes the king of Egypt. Then there's a civil war, but peace is restored. Then Petubastis gives his son to a priest named Ammon? Priests of Horus come with 13 Bucolis (whatever those are), then something about a boat and heroes. Finally there's some expedition in Mesopotamia and a war. Then someone is made into a queen. And so on.
By the way, that's what Latin looks like if you've never really studied it except a few basics but can read, write and understand a few IALs like Ido and Interlingua and Occidental. I think it's a good idea for them to choose an article that doesn't exist in English as otherwise I might have snuck a glance at the English or other language version to see what it's about.
2 comments:
Ave carissime Davide!
Interesting, I had never heard of this tale before. I've understood it was written in Demotic under the Ptolomei (thus, roughly at the time of Julius Caesar) and including names of historical characters, while the names of the heroes have nothing to do with their historical counterparts! I see that we, in Europe, have invented nothing with the Nibelungenlied or the Chanson de Roland!
You've understood quite well the story. I think the author of the article should have included the description of the characters directly into the summary for clarity.
The Assyrian king sends a witch (veneficam) to capture the Pharaoh, and the witch takes the form of a griffin. Accompanied by fellow warriors (among whom his son Petubastis), Inaros the Pharaoh kills the griffin and makes a cuirass (lorica, thorax, Sambahsa: dorak) out of her fur. Pecruris sneaks by night into the palace of the Assyrian King (the author doesn't bother to explain the link of this episode with the rest of the story....)
When Inaros dies, Petubastis becomes the new Pharaoh, but a dispute arises as to whom the cuirass should escheat, and Petubastis thus strives to avoid a civil war.
Chayris, Petubastis' son, makes huge spendings to the Priest of Ammon (on a boat?). But a young priest of Horus comes incognito with 13 ox-herds (bucolus is from Greek; the sambahsa word is "gwokol") and attacks the ship, vainquishing Chayris and twenty other heroes.
In the last major tale, Prince Petechonsis makes a military campaign against Amazons in Mesopotamia. But, his fight versus Queen Sarpot ends ex aequo. Then, they fell in love with each other, and become allied to fight against the Indians.
Thanks for the updated sambahsa link. On a French auxlang forum, I'm making small sambahsa exercises with Léo Ki and I'm wondering if I should not invite members of the (english-speaking) Auxlang group to join in!
Sit tibi dies jucundus!
Olivarius Sigmundus Lotharingus
Ave carissime Davide!
Interesting, I had never heard of this tale before. I've understood it was written in Demotic under the Ptolomei (thus, roughly at the time of Julius Caesar) and including names of historical characters, while the names of the heroes have nothing to do with their historical counterparts! I see that we, in Europe, have invented nothing with the Nibelungenlied or the Chanson de Roland!
You've understood quite well the story. I think the author of the article should have included the description of the characters directly into the summary for clarity.
The Assyrian king sends a witch (veneficam) to capture the Pharaoh, and the witch takes the form of a griffin. Accompanied by fellow warriors (among whom his son Petubastis), Inaros the Pharaoh kills the griffin and makes a cuirass (lorica, thorax, Sambahsa: dorak) out of her fur. Pecruris sneaks by night into the palace of the Assyrian King (the author doesn't bother to explain the link of this episode with the rest of the story....)
When Inaros dies, Petubastis becomes the new Pharaoh, but a dispute arises as to whom the cuirass should escheat, and Petubastis thus strives to avoid a civil war.
Chayris, Petubastis' son, makes huge spendings to the Priest of Ammon (on a boat?). But a young priest of Horus comes incognito with 13 ox-herds (bucolus is from Greek; the sambahsa word is "gwokol") and attacks the ship, vainquishing Chayris and twenty other heroes.
In the last major tale, Prince Petechonsis makes a military campaign against Amazons in Mesopotamia. But, his fight versus Queen Sarpot ends ex aequo. Then, they fell in love with each other, and become allied to fight against the Indians.
Thanks for the updated sambahsa link. On a French auxlang forum, I'm making small sambahsa exercises with Léo Ki and I'm wondering if I should not invite members of the (english-speaking) Auxlang group to join in!
Sit tibi dies jucundus!
Olivarius Sigmundus Lotharingus
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